Tuesday, April 19, 2011

As a voter, you should read the manifesto in full and compare it with WP's manifesto to make a decision.

The PAP Vision:

"You can count on the PAP to do
the best for Singaporeans from all
walks of life, and to keep us united
through good times and bad.

Together, we will make Singapore
a vibrant and inclusive society, with
opportunities for a better life for
each and every citizen. We will be
a city for the young and old."

On the surface it looks like an acceptable rather vague& broad general vision but there is something very subtle that is embedded in it - see if you can spot it. It says it aims to provide "opportunities for a better life for each and every citizen" as opposed to making life better for each and every citizen. This statement in the vision tells us that the underlying belief in the PAP that it is sufficient just to provide "social mobility"/opportunities rather narrowing the income gap or mitigate the effects of the income gap to elevate everyone to a "better life". You have some chance for a better life but if you don't make it, your life won't be better. This is a huge downgrade from the Swiss standard living we once look forward to and....what will happen to ideas that will improve the lives of all Singaporeans such as universal healthcare, decent retirement for all, worldclass public transport (not sardine cans), and better public housing? In fact, where solutions are cited in the manifesto, they are what the PAP has been doing in the past decades e.g. retraining of low income workers from one low income job to another etc. When the same solutions are used, we will only get the same results - widening income gap, rising cost of living and a deteriorating quality of life.

The PAP must be very confident to present such a manifesto without new ideas to a populace waiting not so patiently for solutions to the serious problems and challenges they face.

If one look and compare PAP's 2006 & 2011 manifesto, there's not much of a change. They just repeat the same drill, same wine from new bottles.

The only out-take with the new version is a runner on the front pages, tacitly implying to Singaporeans that the race to "faster-cheaper, better" is now on, just right after the elections that is. PM Lee has also said on TV forum that PAP has equipped us the gears to run. Have they?

They will win again, sure. But not by default, by design rather. Question is how many seats will they lose.

We know and you don't;We don't think you will understand even if we explain;We told you just to trust us and you hesitated;We have to change the system and introduce GRC to protect you from yourselves;We have to have an Elected President just to be sure;We told you to work harder, faster, and become cheaper;And all you do is complain;We have had enough of you;Take us or leave;We can always invite others to come here to stay.

Why should taxpayers pay for SM, MM & junior understudies millions of dollars plus so many other MP wannabes when only 5 are needed. The rest are just taking out back benches and don't even do a good job as (M)overs of (P)leas. What the hell can SM Lee do now? Another bloated big government. We have overfed all the monkeys with peanuts, and they have become gorillas now. Time to open the cage and let them out into the wild for their own survival.

If the MM at nearly 90 year old is fit for election, then Chiam certainly qualifies too.And if Tin Pei Ling qualifies then all other young candidates are as eligible.So,all the old cocks and hens better be quiet! Ok?Same or not same manifesto, result same same, okay oredi.

"Our vision of a First World Parliament, being explained in detail, is one where we have opposition party performing a robust check and function in the House itself. And it doesn't have to be similar to any other country's parliament in that sense, as long as it works for Singapore and it is effective for accountability, that's the most important thing.

Ms Rajah mentions that she doesn't think it's possible for any other opposition party to act other than in their own partisan interests, but let's not forget that the People's Action Party was once in opposition before. So is she saying that at that time the PAP also did not act in the national interest?"

Have our wages increased in line with inflation rate?Do you find it harder to put food on the table with rising cost? Do you find yourself working longer hours? Have you got enough down time for renewal & recharged, and fed well and right to run the next 5 years race? If faster, cheaper & better = great quality of life?

No one can operate at high intensity, under high pressure, for long hours. We inexorably burn down our own best resources —our energy reservoir — and we begin to rely instead on the physiology of fight or flight — adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. The prefrontal cortex shuts down in fight or flight, our perspective narrows, and our primitive instincts begin to take over - thus the xenophobia and lost of productivity.

We need a better way of working. It's not about generating short-term, high GDP gains by using fear as a motivator and then squeezing people to their limits - placing unnecessary stirs in their hides is just one example.

I will vote to tell the ruling party that I am not just another human digits for them to add to our vast reserves when so little are done for its citizens. And I mean beyond all the shiny infrastructure and buildings that only makes the Party leaders look good, but its hard-slogging people weary.

A good look at how PAP's policies will affect US tomorrow. I will bear this in mind..is about me, not the Party Renewal, not Singapore (for now). If I don't have the energy to perform how else could I contribute to the country success? Besides, we have dutifully contributed the last 50years, always putting our nation first. But now, enough is enough. Not to say I wish anything bad or worse to happen to us, but I certainly want my government to pay attention to we (the peoples) needs.

Sorry. I ask what the country can do for me (after 50years of voting in single party) not what I can do for the country this time. My parents & I've done our part, what is the Party going to help/do for us?

There is a turkey, noting that he had always been fed at sunrise, concluded that "I am always fed at sunrise" held as a general rule. On Christmas morning, it therefore came as a bit of shock when, instead of getting feed down his neck, he got his neck wrung.

Moral of the story - although we base our expectations of the future on the experience of history, past performance is no guarantee of future returns. You won't put all your eggs in one basket, so why would you do the same with your country.

In an interview with NYT, mr brown commented that everybody wanted the opposition, just not in his backyard.

The thing, I do want the opposition in my ward. I'm from the Aljunied, and I'll be very proud if the opposition can represent me in the Parliament. Not forgetting I'll have some ass-kissing PAP losers working hardER to win my vote in 2016.

We have paid a king's ransom for years and I do not wish to be held ransom again for another 5 years of empty promises and half baked policies which do not quite benefit S'poreans. Judging by the new candidates, I do not see a new "A" team and there is no need to experiment with duds using taxpayers money.

It's very clever and similar to James Adam's 1931 definition of the American Dream that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. This idea is enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence.

The "American Dream" has many principles that Americans hold dear & proudly, but the key concept is that of MERITOCRACY: "opportunity for each according to ability or achievement"!

So there is nothing in there that guarantees equality of outcomes, not even equality of opportunities - something that our PAP has cleverly used to justify the current social inequalities. LKY pretty much shouts this out in Hard Truths that they give you the opportunity to pursue a better life (through education), but forget about equal outcomes.

//So there is nothing in there that guarantees equality of outcomes, not even equality of opportunities -//

So you agree with our MM Lee that SG pledge is only an Aspiration, not an oath of Allegiance or Promise? Voting is a Priviledge not a Right?

We, the citizens of Singaporepledge ourselves as one united people,regardless of race, language or religion,to build a democratic society,based on justice and equality,so as to achieve happiness, prosperity andprogress for our nation.

Then any new Tom, Dick & Harry can just come in and help build singapore's aspiration. Everyone else who won't or couldn't will just have to accept expiration..is that it?

Are they going to tell me someday that the CPF is an aspiration to build a sufficient retirements but there's no guarantee. Same for Healthcare, same for the Team A? Aspiration is sufficient, results is not required?

//From available information, Mr Chen has spent 40 of his 50 years out of Singapore… He now turns up and asks Singaporeans to elect him as a Member of Parliament. Surely, voters have a right to know from the Workers’ Party if such a candidate can identify with the aspirations of Singaporeans and has a stake in our future?”- Dr Ng Eng Hen, //

So let me ask Dr Ng a question.

http://bit.ly/f7Nw82

Between a decades long-staying PR & a decades long-away Singaporean, who i a better son/daughter of Singapore? Does it depend on your KPI where one contributions is a more superior measurement over the other - by Economic vs National duties? Has CSM not done his NS? Not returning now to SG to serve as a non-guranteed MP latter in his life not of same magnitude by PAP's standard, as opposed to a PR who simply could not surrender her allegiance to her native country? The former has chosen to return home and form another Team A in Party B, but the latter has chosen to keep her Exit Plan B. And there are many PRs of such who fall into such a category.

Is Dr Ng questioning the motivations, or the aspirations of citizens here?

"The thing is, for each one like you, there will be at least 2 or 3 others who had already bought (cheap) years ago or who can afford to buy a roof over their heads."

Many may have cleared the hurdles. But we are working for our future generations and preventing the rot from going worst and from infecting the rest on how things are being done here.

These 2 or 3 others you have mentioned and people like you could easily do the mathematics on housing cost / loan repayment in the current situation to know how things are and whether it is so affordable as to leave one (or a couple) a good retirement pool after paying full his mortgage - assuming one is lucky enough to hold his well paying job continously without getting retrenched during the service of his mortgage.

Well, it's definitely "going to get worse" if we believe wholescale everything which the incumbent party(the PAP) tells us. Honestly, the real problem has to do with Singaporeans' inherent critical mindset about everything. Although we do know the problems that are occurring on the ground, yet why do we still vote in the incumbent party after so many years in all these times, and why does this lack of political vibrancy as opposed to other countries remain an aspect of our culture?

We trap ourselves in this mindset that even if we do not like the incumbent party's policies, we still do not want to give the opposition(s) any chance. The opposition always had to work with limited resources compared to the incumbent who has the main media at their beck and call in a way. We know that it was never really fair, and then we complain about how inefficient the opposition is. In short, we just want perfection and would rather settle for known and established complacency without checks and balances in a government from only one incumbent party, rather than opting for a possibility of change.